In many industrial environments the quantity and complexity of equipment used requires automation in order to make productive use of the equipment. Automation is enhanced by simplified interfaces between the users of the equipment and the equipment itself. Often this function is provided through the use of a human machine interface, which can be a computer including a touch screen or other input device to allow the user to control the equipment.
It is often desirable to make the human machine interface flexible to allow its use on a variety of equipment in a variety of configurations. This requires that the human machine interface be readily configurable. Often equipment is represented on the human machine interface by a plurality of graphical elements. Some of these graphic elements are static and unchanging, while others are dynamic and react to changes within the machinery which are displayed to the user on the human machine interface.
Customizing these graphic elements into displays for every foreseeable piece of equipment is impossible, so it is necessary to make the design of human machine interface screens as easy as possible. Often, this involves the creation of huge libraries of graphical elements to represent machine displays and controls. Obviously the creation of these libraries is a huge effort, and streamlining the creation of human machine interface animated graphical elements is very valuable.